Interactive is the name of the game
Body Paint was the best, invented by a clever and friendly young Turkish designer called Mehmet Atken who now lives in London (like so many other exhibitors in this show). His idea is a kind of digital DIY. If you move about in front of a large wall you trigger an explosion of colour, with changing rainbows of washes, brush strokes and even drips (see picture). Already it’s been a hit at various events and festivals. And it can’t be long, surely, before someone does a small scale domestic version.
Another exhibit is called Dandelion (left) which pretty much sums it up. It’s is a large seed-head on a glowing blue background and it is literally blowing in the wind. Point a hand-held fan (shaped like a hair drier) towards it and the seeds disperse, only to flutter back for the next visitor.
But my favourite piece is just outside the Porter Gallery (which is the show’s home until 11 April). This is a tall panel of what appears to be “moving wallpaper” but in fact is a light projection (right).
This is by London-based Daniel Brown, who told me he was inspired by the V&A textile archive. The software he has written for his piece is “self-generative”. I’m not sure I really understand it fully, but broadly speaking it means that this type of computer code has its own “life”, evolving organically, to produce animations that are always different and sometimes unexpected for even the designer. Scary?
Decode: Digital Design Sensations is at the Porter Gallery in the V&A, South Kensington until 11 April (www.vam.ac.uk/decode; 020 7942 2000).- Pictures are by Barbara Chandler
- More pictures of Decode are on www.flickr.com/photos/barbarachandler/sets/72157622922386829
A feature on Decode is in Homes & Property in the Evening Standard on 13 January. Be sure to pick up your free copy!
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